War Made Easy

In real time, officials have explained and justified these military operations to the American people by withholding crucial information about the actual reasons and potential costs of military action again and again, choosing to present an easier version of war's reality; a steady and remarkably consistent storyline designed not to inform, but to generate and maintain support and enthusiasm for war.

War Made Easy reaches into the Orwellian memory hole to expose a 50-year pattern of government deception and media spin that has dragged the United States into one war after another from Vietnam to Iraq.

Narrated by actor and activist Sean Penn, the film exhumes remarkable archival footage of official distortion and exaggeration from LBJ to George W. Bush, revealing in stunning detail how the American news media have uncritically disseminated the pro-war messages of successive presidential administrations.

As an american who loves his country and what it's suppose to stand for...watching this makes me feel ill. As if I'm going to have a heart attack. History repeating it's self. Some one plz pull the brake lever on this ride.

Canada doesn't have nukes. We even protested test flights of the cruise missle over our territory and I remember the Litton 5 who broke into the factory that had something to do with the guidance system. But we diod yeild and yes me do manufacture weapons and sell them to Israel another one of Canada's dirty little secrets.
RR

No, but Canada is the other half of NORAD, and has signed agreements with the US NOT to develop nukes, and in return, the united states would nuke anyone if they nuked Canada.

Rocky Racoon
- 03/11/2012 at 12:49

Read Trotsky as Alternative and the Communist Manifesto......especially the Communist Manifesto.....Marx was more accurate than Nostradamus yet more believe in Nostradamus than Marx....that is the power of propaganda and the media......

I'm only half way through watching this and it's great we can sdee documentary like this that can inform the public about the facts.I knew about all this and more from years of study.All presidents since and before JFK are war criminals and should be treated as such.The lieing MSM the 4th brach of the government is just as bad and they all are just as responsible as the lieing government and the soldiers doing the mudering.Countrys should be behind there military,but if soldiers are doing things they that are illegal even when orderd should say no and be willing to suffer for doing the right thing.Soldiers now kill themselfs because they can't live with what they have seen and done.Soldiers should get no special treatment if doing illegal things.Many soldiers have come back to tell of the crimes they were orderd to comite ion illegal wars of aggression.Soldiers must refuse to fight if they no the war is baised opn lies expecialy when they see it with there own eyes.The zionist warmongers care nothing about the lifes lost on both sides of a war just the money the very few in the military industrial complex make.Witch includes so many people the weapons makers the MSM and the tyranicle government.Today it seems the world is upside down were the good are bad and the bad are good.There is corruption in every government but more in America than any other.There support for Israel and its crimes and support for terrorists to attack Iran and Turkey and other along with there Sampson Option and illegal nucular weapons they are the worlds biggest terrorists,and the biggest danger to the world.No more countrys sending others children to fight for Israel when they are the cause of there problems.They follow no UN laws or Geniva laws they have over 65 broken UN resolutions more than the entire Mid East put togeather,Palsistine 0,but of course most people would never no this unless they read our found it on the internet.They would never say things like this on the zionist owned MSM.Well could and have went much furthewr but the information about all this and more is easly available in books and on the net.

In my opinion the United States is becoming a world threat. Things might be different if common American people are taken to Irak to see the destruction and death that they have caused there. American soldiers did that to German civilians when showed to them the Nazi concentration camps. I see massive and dangerous fanatism in the US society, hope they do not spin out control as Germans did in the last century.

I feel for the Americans who tried to make the decision for war a balanced one. There are definitely a lot of them out there and they are often tarred with the same brush as warmongers and those who acquiesced even against their instincts. It cannot have been easy to face up to the "With us or with the terrorists" brigade. Its hella easy to shout ethics without the "Fox News Pressures" here in Europe. Note the apathy to the media reforms Rupert Murdoch is pushing here in the UK . Let that happen and we will have to be very brave just to state our 'just war' opinions. If you have done (done not commented ) nothing about this then I beg you not to judge Americans so smugly because misguided US patriot types are what we will have in frightening numbers when Rupert wins. I wish it were "if" but it looks like "when".

If the dialoge in the "mainstream" was peace, I truly believe, that many people would reject war as the last "worst" resort. However, the truth is, and has been, from countless politicians for a century, that WAR is necessary.

The rhetoric, has been constant in politics:

"We go to war to win peace"

I hope I am not the only person to recognize and fear this paradox.

Stephen
- 02/19/2011 at 20:33

Still, why put stars over the word stupid? Are people actually that offended?

This its not a "conspiracy video", I understand that you might be a bit scared of admitting that you were lied too all your life, but please do not be in denial.

@Don Kelvin

Don't look for the anti-war movement in the mainstream media, is a waste of time, still I can tell you that the anti war movement is in good health, thank you very much.

Although Obama is betraying many of is constituency (don't include me on that) due to his knowledge of a lack of opponents with ability to raise the amounts of money needed to compete against him, coming form a left leaning spectrum.
Not that Obama his a left wing politician, he is not. Obama is center or center left at the most. In fact by European mainstream standards Obama is in fact a moderate right winger.

Still I don't understand how do you expect to pin all those accusations on the anti war movement, when every one is aware that most of Obama funding come from Wall St.
Meaning, Obama it is not the left wing/anti war president, but the Wall St. handyman, who got where he is now after a lot of brown nosing, no pun intended.

Only people who doesn't pay attention to politics allowed themselves to be optimistic after Obama's election win.
I was happy that the other senile GOP lackey didn't won, but not happy for Obama's win, however, I admit to be moved by the fact of an African-American holding the most powerful job on Earth, but never forgetting that amazingly wise French proverb:

Plus ça change, plus c'est la même chose.
The more things change, the more they are the same.

MLK summed it all up beautifully.I see those fox news highjackers of his memory don't mention these words and his view of war.I notice someone up top saying all the good the US does.Well after you have killed millions,displaced millions, mamed tens of thousands how much good can you do to to make that right?Thats like saying yeah the priest molest children,yeah the jesuits start wars[millions die from],yeah we got the nazis out of germany safely[millions died],oh and that little inquisition but the Catholic Church Corp. feeds orphans they do so much good.See thats called the luxury of watching it on tv.Peace

Lets start the new anti war movement.
Lets get the boys out of Afghanistan.
Im not worried about the few Danish deaths there has been.
I worry about all the now and future homeles orphants, widdows, and dead husbands of afghanistan!

Oh the shame, I must say that this documentary raised genuine dread, despite the fact that our country is a close ally to US ... for now at least. Glad to see some common sense in the comments here - there is hope afterall, I hope.

So here we are now, nearly two years into Obama, four years of a Democrat Party controlled government (Bush was a lame duck by any discription after the Democrats took control of the purse strings in 2008) and where is the USA? A new, illegal war with Pakistanis, still in Afghanistan, more deaths than ever, and Iraq? who knows.... not to mention a newer more powerful "Patriot Act" signed by Mr. Obama, along with the Presidential Assassination Act. Oh yes, Mr. Penn and the left have much to answer for, but where, oh where, is the documentaries, the Code Pink marches, Cindy Sheehan and the antiwar movement now?

I'm Canadian and would love to have a tottal break from Americas government when it comes to foriegn policy.I belive are government is also been corrupted and the ones that are not don't speek for Canadians to here.People need to invesigate for themself to find the truth,and the people that don't are just lazy.I don't like nucular weapons our war but we no longer should depend on America to help us they are just as likely to stab us in the back like others that trusted them.We are a nucular power and need are own nucular deterant and no longer involve ourselfs in Americas illegal wars.We don't need them and the sooner we take responsibility to protect ourselfs the better.The only almost forsure way is to have a nucular deterant.Countrys don't want to invade other when MAD is a likely possibility.I hope the American people can return to the laws layed out in the constitution,but that would take replaceing the enire government in the next elections making it clear that if the new government becomes tyranicle they will be gone to.I have a feeling the government would need to be removed by force witch according to the constitution is not just a right but a duty when the government has become tyranicle.If and when it happens Americas and others in there countrys need to make sure the government is under the peoples controll like in a real democracy.

Ron
- 06/08/2010 at 07:33

@rob - it should be part of any journalism programme at least. I especially look toward the Murtha declaration of a pullout from Iraq and the so called reporters taking the opportunity to express personal oppinion on Murtha.

When an organization such as FOX can be created to supply a target audience there is something seriously wrong with a society.

@Tom - I think this documentary portrays a media as culpable as the politicians. It is quite scarry actually. You may think you are under a microscope but in your schools are you not brought up to think you are in the best country on the planet? Does this not manifest itself to other countries peoples in their desire to emmigrate to america?

You also consume a vast amount of the planets resources and thus have foreign policy to protect/enhance the inflow of said resourses. You do a lot of good in the world as a country and a society. Vietnam and Iraq wipe out all the good you do in the eyes of many. Kind of like Jimmy Swaggart. You can be 99% pure but if you like to wank off to prostitues for pleasure that 1% poor judgement will kill your 99% perfection in peoples eyes.

And to sit and watch Chenney on Meet the Press and say that the US would be seen as liberators shows exactly how ill advised and ignorant the whole Iraq War process started from the very beginning. You can believe your own BS but don't expect other people to believe it.

And this documentary is not just about US and going to war. It is the model for every nation on the planet and a process used by every nation that goes to war. The US just happens to poke its nose in many different places over time.

i hate the fact that media, politician, even the american people itself say are we winning the war or not.. what a dumb thing to ask! the war is over its already an occupasion. i personally think this is the great invention of the propaganda minister in washington for a delaying tactics in ending the troops occupation maybe for the reason of planting their coporation there and solve their original plan and that is oil of iraq.. the fact that they didnt withdraw immidiately and give the power to the iraqi people and just help them in the shadows mean they have other objective not just bringing down saddam

"As you sow, so shall you reap" Good luck Americans your destiny is awaiting for you , not from terrorist around the world but from your own wealthy fellow American who own from food$drug to media ...
I am waiting for a time to see the world free of people like
Bush, Osama and their companions.These are all same sort of pigs with minor genome disorder and making lives of innocent human difficult everywhere.

Maybe its a sign, a symptom if you will, of watching too many of these documentaries, but for me this one didn't offer much or any new information.

Yeah sure I agree with most of it, but one must consider this to be propaganga - counterpropaganda - as well as the official stories this document fights against.

It relies on the same principles: careful and from time to time brilliant use of media to manipulate emotion, while speaking of the search for truth. Accusations can be made of anything by anyone, but without backing them up with facts, it really just leaves me with the word 'propaganda' circling through my mind.

And yet as said I agreed with almost everything said here, but still this is a poorly presented case at best.

Very entertaining though... if interested in history of U.S. policies concerning global issues I suggest reading Noam Chomsky. Yea.

Noarm Chomsky belives the 9/11 official story and is not a good person as anyone that has seen the evidence would be 100% sure it was an inside job with some help from Israels Mossad.He also says he belives the official lie about the muder of JFK that is known by anyone with Noam inteligence that it was also done with the highest government involvment.JFK said he was going to dismantle the CIA and that Israel would get Nukes over his dead body.After his death LBJ did everthing opposite of what JFK wanted.Eather LBJ was threatened our in on the assasination of the President of the USA.Also recently an Israely dual citizen said that Mossad should think of assasinating Obama,and nothing was done to him or his paper.If it was not a Jew and expecially a Arab he would be in Gitmo for the rest of his life.Is America that scared of Israel and there Sampson Option and there illegal nucular weapons to do anything to one of it's citizens that break the law.Just like on 9/11 when the Mossad operatives got caught celibrating as the towars burned,and in there van were traces of explosives.After being detained for about 5 weeks they were realised to Israel with no charges to get on the Israely new and say they were just there to document the event.Well if that don't show there involment nothing does.America and Israel are the 2 most hated governments in the world and are 1 day going to face the entire world.If Iran our Pakistan is illegaly attacked we will see WW3 and in the end when America loses and Israel is wiped from existance we will all die in a nucular war caused by the only country to ever use nucular weapons America.WW3 will be because of America our Israel unless something changes.Not to say every last person in eather government is corrupt but facts show many more are than are not.This is common knowledge to everone on the net and without the internet we would not know even close to what is easly available to us all.So people that don't know eather don't care to bother investigating someting that is easly found our can not read.But for those that can't read documentarys have all the information a person needs.If we dependedon the MSM like I once did we would think these criminals were great people.Long post but there is no reason to be ignorant to what your government is doing in your name with your tax dollars.And again Chomsky is a sell out scum bag because we know he is not dumb to belive the official storys to 9/11 and JFKs assasination.

Bob Webb
- 08/08/2012 at 23:19

well said...

PHILIP VAN DER MUDE
- 04/19/2010 at 04:30

there is a core issue of the GOOD HUMAN/HOMIND nature that helped us survive MILLIONS of years and the drop in the bucke t of time whihc the last 5 k years of civiliation ruled by a deceptive PYCHOPATHIC self serving mindset has produced . god/king othrodoxy or right thinking the thinking BASIS flawed being of the 1% of a natureal 3% birht defect rate part of which is Pyschopathic , who does not FEEL part of family or nature , teaching that fear it feels to it's followers passed down age after age because of the natural good ness of the homo spaien homind to work well as a group for over all surival .

again the BASIS , being derivied from a PYCHOPATHIC view of NATURE and fear of amost everything .

a broader view of what is FUN really is meeds to be addressed and taught , bombs of information to be dropped about .... DE civilationizing ..would not be at all profitable so we continue down the same path , while de_ civilationing would leave dicotors alone in thier capitals , hungry and unable to feed themselves since the god/king needs it's slaves to supply the slave city with outside resources .

good video to remind of the complexity of the CONFUSE AND CONQUER princles held in the teaching of warfare arts . We the peoples of the planet are the enemy of the Pyschopath ruling class. and must be confused to aid in our conquering .

So what is really FUN for the human /homind look back only 100 years ago before eoctricty look to the areas now where people still live in old ways , and then teach BALENCE of use of techonolgy with the ideas held in Bill Mollison or the EARTHSHIP guy , re claim our lands and a place as the guider of the GARDEN .... my dna machine shows me MILLIONS of years of evidence .. my hands my teeth are not made to kil and eat the cow for example whihc inhabits 580 million acres of the US while humans a cramed into only 108 million , the use of 530 million acres to provide wood , while we know that Earth housing is ..better .

keep videos like this coming and keep thinking for yourself and maybe some day .... small changes will happen and the 97 out of 100 mentally healthy humans will leave the hungry pyschopaths alone in thier mightmare civilizations . To die ( to transition like is NATURAL for all living things )

All depends from where the point or the argument is looked from, or with what ideas you come to see such problems. It is clear that you, in particular have very specific hypothesis of how we should or ought to manage ourselves for the continuation and preservation of everything regarded as important, in a sociological and natural perspective.

Yet there is an inevitable flaw on such argument. For the past 150 years, the human population has increased dramatically, where in consequence, the old ways could not and can not sustain the vast amounts of population which came with the industrial revolution. New forms of cultivation and mass production had to be engineered in order to sustain ourselves.

We could say that almost all the wars of the last 100 years had been fueled by antisemitic sentiment of entire races. Now, lets be clear that such actions have been taken place for thousands of years, since the dawn of human existence. examples could easily include the extermination of the Neanderthal (a clash of different evolutionary branches), The constant war in African tribes going since the bronze age, The Roman empire with thousands of slaves. The European slave trade, were ironically certain African tribes help capture and eradicate entire tribes from Africa. In the 20Th century, a new wave of nationalism and antisemitism could bee seen in cases such as Japan (1930-1937) the conquest of Manchuria and China, where Chinese people were regarded as inhuman, and savagely liquidated. Russia and the treatment of satellite countries in the far East. Germany's extermination of the Jewish population in Europe, United States and the elimination of Rights to all Japanese Americans in the country. I could continue yet i believe i have made my point.

Unfortunately almost all the time events can be predictable, do to actions that come before hand. Deception and demagoguery is not a strategy of totalitarian governments, yet it is indebted in our personality, we are conscious of what we are able of doing yet society standards prevents most of us of using such methods to gain all sorts of things, from the simplest to the entire dismantlement of countries such as Iraq that as far as we (homo-sapiens) "the thinking man" had little or no connection to terrorist organizations, yet the Usage of propaganda by means of personal interest and deception, fueled the primordial stages to a war that was by all means FALSE and unconstitutional, Public opinion was key to the invasion, and the feeding of useless information to the populi (population) consecrated the corner stone of such war.

But we, all of us, know that in a Democracy no secrets will remain hidden when public opinion starts to shift, and if ultimately the public genuinely wants answers, they shall get them, because to remain in the mercy of a genuinely DEMOCRACY, no matter how bad things are the people can not and shall not give away Rights for Security (the Patriot Act), it is to the people to defend the very ideas that protect them, it is to the people to defend and equally criticize the policies and doctrines regardless of being labeled unpatriotic. It is the very concept of democracy that ensures the discussion, the debate, the questioning, the individual pursuit to information without bias and the continuation of such system. . . Because with the lack of this actions, every democracy will fall willingly into a totalitarian state, were questions that defy the status quo are rejected and usually condemned, not without mentioning the public humiliation of does who ask them.

Fairness in News is a thing of the past, very few organizations can or should be trusted. The independent Media has stepped up to assume the unpopular challenge of actual coverage, of portraying the news as they are. Unfortunately no room is left for this on television so every detail must be copulated into documentaries, small chats of eminent people of different fields who portray the same concerns as most if all of us. websites as Wiki-leaks which with courage portray what we don't see in the news. Things like this often never see the light of day, always to remain dark in almost censored or heavily criticized websites, like wikileaks.org it self. In this way real information must be copulated into Documentaries in order to portray an ever growing sentiment of disapproval, and concern.

Yet besides all i have said, i am an optimist. I, like must hope, yet I, like few ACT, with full confidence in my actions and ready to back down, if the majority of what i have said is false. Yet i am not blind, unlike many.

Do not confuse my criticism as unpatriotic or merely the pretest of many, socialist. It is the question that others don't ask that makes this country go every deeper into an abyss from where return seems almost impossible. I dare question, i dare stand, i dare go and search, when you seat a watch. . . . It is I, who defends democracy, not once every 4 years exercising my right as an american to vote, but to question every day, for the rest of my life, no matter who, no matter where. Because our survival of our rights, and the defense of our "freedoms" lays upon our actions.

Tom
- 03/20/2010 at 14:01

I am a regular on this website. I enjoy the educational qualities of their history docs and many others. I am a well educated American. I also consider myself very patriotic, however I understand that my country has made some big mistakes. On the other hand, my country has also been a very benevolent one which I would have to say far outweighs her blunders.

I would never deny that we have a lot of changes that we need to make. We are far from perfect. However, it seems we are always under a microscope to others. To many it seems as if we are an experiment that they are hoping will fail. I don't believe that we will though. If you never make mistakes, than you are not doing anything! It is in our human nature to screw up.

But to sit back and watch someone or a country in this case and dwell on their mistakes and ignore their accomplishments is wrong. so my message is targeted to you, my fellow brothers from other countries.... What has your government done lately in the grand scheme of things?

A lot of changes you need to make but 'you' can't because they wont let you (politically speaking). Its designed to work this way. Nothing really changes only the muppets in power! A lot of people tried to change things before 'you' and mostly all are dead.
'You' are a microscope to others because 'you' chose to interrupt and give orders to these countries on how to do things in your favor.
And last, mistakes 'you' made, mistakes that cost millions of lives (children included) and generations of ruins and hatred.
"It's an American dream, because you have to be asleep to believe it" George Carlin

Rob
- 07/12/2009 at 12:57

This film should be part of the curriculum in all schools I am reminded of that old joke about how you can tell a politician is lying-answer: their lips are moving.I extracted a quote,which I intend to repeat on other posts,Senator Wayne Morse:"I have complete faith the people can follow the facts if given them".This goes to the very core of this film. I was one of many who shouted loud that war with Iraq was based on falsehoods and that it would not be a swift victory,that the US would grow weary of the cost in[their ]soldiers lives and dollars[never mind the cost in Iraqi lives] I said all these things long before the event,not because I am prescient or extra smart but because I look beyond the mainstream media BS.

An independent media is a very important pillar of every democracy.
If mass media turns into state propaganda, democracy is at stake.
The US-media has been a role model to many countries around the world because US-journalists do not hesitate to report on anything, they consider themselves to be guardians of democracy (which I find commendable)......yet there are exceptions as far as patriotic issues are concerned.
It is a fact that the great majority of US-mass media chose to collaborate with State-propaganda during the Afghanistan- and Iraq wars, deliberately suppressing objectivity, succumbing to the "good and evil"/"we against them" picture of ideological patriotic-nationalism, ridiculing, isolating and silencing objective/critical voices.
US patriotism is a sensitive subject because it is very strong amongst all social classes and it is considered "shameful" to criticize, its a taboo.......to be against the "cause", to be unpatriotic means to be UN-AMERICAN, almost nobody in the US wants to be considered that.
The results of the media "buy in" is the mass misdirection of the American people, were wars that could have been prevented, international isolation, the explosion of Islamic extremism around the world and world-wide anti-Americanism.

@david:
I disapprove of your self-satisfied attitude regarding "free societies" such as the one you believe you are living in.
States, no matter how democratic, will silence anyone who knows too much and has hard evidence to prove it.
If you live in the US, dear David, the country with the greatest secret services in the world, you should actually be very aware of that.

Please note that I am not anti-American. To hate Americans because of a foreign policy which was engineered by unscrupulous Washington Think Tanks would be unjust as I believe that they are a genuine and sincere people.

America to get rid of everyone that knows the truth would have to kill most of the educated world.So they just sit back and hate that all this info is at all are finger tips.I applaude to brave people that write and make documentarys because without brave people like these we would not know to much.The news no longer does its job.Judge Napolitano news show freedom watch was cancelled do to his truth about facts and the constitution and his support for Ron Paul the only person running that actually deserves to be president.Even if you don't agree with everthing he says at least with him you know you get truth not lies 24/7.I really like the Judge and wish him well and thank him for his service to America and the world.

david
- 03/30/2009 at 18:08

difference between free society, usa, and apear to be free society in russia dimitry: here people make these conspiracy videos and people all over the world can watch them. there, politkovskaya writes about war crimes and tortures commited by Putin, she gets killed. Litvanenko talks bad about Putin, they poison him with polonium, so we know who did it and why he did it, so you know what not to say. Georgia, wonderful show of Soviet mercy at that theatre or in that school. Obviously Markovnikov's files about KGB days....... new secret service works as contract killers for youre mafia, blows up buildings with people in it and we hear, gas explosion. remember my friend dmitry, when they read the wrong day in Duma by accident, the bombing was few days later. I understand the problems of the Unites States, but please Dmitry, let Scansinavians complain, i believe you have other more pressing, closer things on youre mind.

I`m glad to see that you begin to search "really" truth, but not "american" truth. difference btw them is that first truth is known all over the world and second one - the truth of your government.
i`d like such films will be more and more, because when you understand, why you are so hated throughout the world, you will (may be)change you minds and turn over your foreign politicy.
with good wishes from Moscow, Russia